Tips for a Successful Meeting

Who: You and a few friends (or more!) who want to take political action together on one or more CODEPINK campaigns or projects.

What: Have a gathering-a potluck, a movie night, a meet-up at a local café-and brainstorm how you want to take action together. Bring a sign-up sheet.

Followup: Please send CODEPINK national the contact info you gather for new members, so they can receive CODEPINK's national e-alerts! You can either photocopy and mail your sign-up sheets to our LA office, or type sign-ups into an Excel file and email your file to webmanager[at]codepink.org. If you choose to send contact info in an Excel file, please separate data into these columns: First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, City, State, Zip. (Yes, first name and last name do need to be separate columns!)

Tips for a successful meeting:

Speak from your heart, be organized with a meeting agenda and materials, and be focused on what everyone should get out of the meeting.

Combine your meeting with a potluck meal or a peace vigil, if possible. Hold your meeting at a café, home, or warm and inviting public place.

Have the meeting go smoothly by having one person facilitate the discussion, one person keep track of time, and one person take notes or a task list. Rotate these responsibilities so that your group members use and/or develop their skills.

Add an action to your meeting: have people call new members on their cell phones, write a letter to the editor, make peace cranes, or paint a banner. Use this action to promote your meeting. ?Keep organizing meetings short and to the point. If people are looking tired or distracted, offer a short stretching break or a song. Make sure everyone has something concrete to do at the end of the meeting. Remember, the more ownership participants feel, the more active they'll be.

At the end of every event or large action, have a debriefing to discuss what went well, and what can be done to improve things next time. Congratulate and thank each other for every success, no matter how small.

Here are the DC Pink House Meeting Ground Rules, which you can use as a guide for your meeting:

Come on time!

When lots of people want to talk, take "stack", meaning the facilitator takes a list of up to 5 at a time to speak to a discussion item, so people don't have to keep their hands raised or interrupt each other

"Step Up, Step Back": Encourage those who don't talk much to speak up, and those who talk a lot to say less

Avoid (or explain) acronyms and speak clearly

Do not use cell phones or check email during the meeting

Keep a "bike rack" - a list of subjects for future discussion so you don't get off on a tangent

Stay focused, no side conversations

Have fun!

Meeting guidelines from InterOccupy:

Be Curious and Open to Learning: Listen to and be open to hearing all points of view. Maintain a attitude of exploration and learning.

Balance Advocacy and Inquiry: Seek to learn and understand as much as you might want to persuade. Conversations are as much about listening as it is about talking.

Show Respect and Suspend Judgment: Setting judgments aside will enable you to learn from others and contribute to others experiencing being respected and appreciated.

Seek Alignment rather than Agreement: Alignment is shared intention, whereas agreement is having a shared belief or opinion.

Be Purposeful and to the Point: Notice if what you are conveying is or is not "on purpose" to the question at hand. Notice if you are making the same point more than once. Do your best to make your point quickly with honesty and depth.

Own and Guide the Conversation or Process: Take responsibility for the quality of your participation and the quality of the work conversations by noticing what's happening and actively support getting yourself and others back "on purpose" when needed.

Be Excellent to Each other: Share what's important to you. Speak authentically; from your personal and heart felt experience. Be considerate to others who are doing the same.